View full sizeMuscle Shoals singer/songwriter Rob Aldridge will play at Dec. 22 solo set at Huntsville's Below the Radar Brewhouse. (Contributed photo)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- When
Rob Aldridge was a child, he marveled at the Martin 000C-16 acoustic guitar his father
would strum Commodores and Marvin Gaye tunes on.

"He bought it around the time
I was born," Aldridge says, "and I always grew up with it being around. There
never was a question as to whether I wanted to pick it up or not."

Now a
24-year-old Muscle Shoals-based singer/songwriter, Aldridge is collaborating
with ex-Drive-By Trucker Rob Malone on a project dubbed Aldridge & Malone.
(The group's website is aldridgeandmalone.com). "We do a lot of writing on
acoustic guitars, but there's definitely a rock and punk element to it, too."

Some of Aldridge's all-time favorite Muscle Shoals recordings include those by Percy Sledge, such as "When a Man Loves a Woman," and "anything" the Swampers - a collective of locally based studio musicians also known as the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section - played on. The Swampers cut tracks with everyone from Wilson Pickett to Paul Simon to Etta James to Aretha Franklin. Aldridge is also a fan of more recent Shoals-area acts, like the Fiddleworms and Jason Isbell.

During Aldridge's 8:30 p.m. Dec. 22 solo set at Below the Radar Brewhouse (220 Holmes
Ave. N.E.), look for songs from his Malone collabo, such as "Frankenstein's
New Girl," as well as covers of classic rock artists including Steely Dan.

"I also do quite a bit of Wilco and stuff like that," Aldridge says.

Interestingly, he says bass players have influenced his guitar technique. "It's easy to play the high-twangy guitar parts, but you really start filling in some space when you throw some bassline type parts in there. It helps it sound bigger."